Sander Vanocur, a veteran journalist with experience in print and broadcasting, will speak at All-School Meeting next Wednesday, Nov. 19. A portion of the meeting will be devoted to questions from students. Vanocur received a bachelor’s degree, with an emphasis in political science, from the Northwestern University School of Speech in 1950. He started out as a reporter on the London Staff of The Manchester Guardian. Vanocur then became a general assignment reporter for the city staff of the New York Times, before joining NBC News, where he served as White House correspondent, national political correspondent and Washington correspondent for the “Today” show. From 1971-77, Vanocur was a senior correspondent for National Public Affairs Center for PBS. At ABC News, Vanocur held many positions between 1977 and 1992. He was chief overview correspondent during the 1980 and 1984 presidential elections, moderating the Vice Presidential debate between incumbent George H. W. Bush and Congresswoman Geraldine Ferraro in 1984. Among other honors, Vanocur has won the Broadcast Leadership Award, 1962, and an Emmy Award nomination (with others), for achievement in coverage of special events, for coverage of the Democratic Convention in Chicago in 1968. When Sen. Robert Kennedy was assassinated on June 5, 1968, at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles, Vanocur was covering the California primary and covered the events of that night for NBC News. In June, in an interview with NBC News, Vanocur said, “[Now,] you don’t say, “I don’t know.” That’s considered unforgiveable. But we didn’t carry that burden 40 years ago. So… there wasn’t this intensity and pressure to say something if you didn’t know anything.” –CORINNA LEWIS
